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“We have to put an end to these constitutional squabbles,” the minister of state for tourism, agriculture and small business said after a speech to a business group in Montreal.

“What I’m saying is that the Constitution must be respected. In the past, when the sovereignty movement was popular in Quebec, who was in (power in) Ottawa? There was an interventionist Liberal government.”

During his speech, Bernier zeroed in on both opposition parties.

He slammed the Liberals, saying they have been the party of centralization for years and one that interferes in areas of provincial jurisdiction.

“Now again, its leader, Justin Trudeau, is proposing that the federal government interfere in the area of education, an exclusively provincial area of jurisdiction according to our Constitution,” Bernier said.

He also criticized the NDP, describing it as “a social party that wants to centralize everything so it can intervene everywhere.”

Bernier offered up the Conservatives’ vision, which he described as that of a more modest, less interventionist government that respects provincial autonomy.

“The Conservative Party of Canada is the natural vehicle for advancing the vision of federalism that is most widely embraced in Quebec,” he added.

The MP also said Quebec should review its interventionist policies if it wants to generate wealth, regain some pride and rediscover its place in Canada.

He said it is time for Quebec to stop begging the federal government for help.

Bernier said Quebec’s nationalist elite must get over certain events such as the British victory on the Plains of Abraham.

The federal minister also assailed the concept of “profitable federalism” as coined by former Liberal premier Robert Bourassa as a response to the independent discourse during the 1970s.

“Federalist and separatist Quebec governments have both used the threat of separation to go and get more money,” he noted. “Even when Ottawa sends more money, the reaction in Quebec City is that it’s never enough.”

Bernier also said that as a Quebecer he is not very proud of the fact that Quebec is a poor province that receives equalization money.

“It’s not the rest of Canada’s fault that we are a poorer province, as the separatists would have us believe.

“If we are poorer, it’s because of bad economic policies that make Quebec’s economy less productive.”

Bernier also blamed the attitude of Quebecers for constitutional and referendum failures over the past 50 years.

“One of the biggest reasons for these failures in my view, has been an unhealthy and unrealistic attitude, he said. ”We need to change our attitude.“ His comments come on the anniversary of the first sovereignty referendum in Quebec, which was held on May 20, 1980.

The referendum question asked Quebecers for a mandate to negotiate a new sovereignty-association agreement with the rest of Canada. The federalist No side won the referendum with about 60 per cent of the vote.